MEMBERS of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) have canvassed more patronage from the Nigerian governments towards the country's speedy economic development. The NSE members also urged the National Assembly to speedily enhance the passage of the Bill on Development in engineering designing in the country. He said the passage of the bill would enable the nation's engineers to engrave their names in the list of notable world engineers that have excelled in the field of technological designing. The NSE, Ilorin branch chairman, Kamil Olalekan, stated this yesterday in Ilorin at a press briefing to mark the kick-off of the annual engineering week of the society. He alleged that preference by the governments for expatriate engineers in designing and execution of projects in the country had greatly hindered the growth of the indigenous engineers. He believed that no foreign engineer would have a genuine passion to develop Nigeria's economy than Nigerians in the field. Olalekan urged the government to give local engineers a more conducive atmosphere 'like they have done with the politicians', to enable them assert themselves in their chosen endeavours. 'Right from the days of President Ibrahim Babangida, the nation's engineers had cried out to the governments challenging them that we could do most of what the foreign engineers are paid huge sum of money to do, but nobody is listening to us. We want to contribute our quota to the nation's development, but there is no right atmosphere to do so', he added. The theme for the three-day event is 'Engineering infrastructure: Effective tool for consolidating good governance'. Olalekan added: 'The NSE should be given a chance to preside over its constituency. This had always been our position. In Law, you cannot appoint a non-lawyer as the Attorney General. In engineering too, we need the services of an engineer as the relevant ministers and commissioners. 'A country yearning for development and is bringing in the Chinese and Japanese engineers to develop its technology cannot be seen as a serious-minded nation.No serious foreigner would be sincerely willing to develop our technology for us. We are throwing the challenge at our governments to give us the needed chance and atmosphere to practice and we will not let them down'.He decried the deplorable state of the nation's road system as he supported the relevant agencies in declaring a state of emergency on the road, adding, 'the bad roads have not only resulted into loss of lives but have also led to serious economic loss'. Olalekan praised the efforts of the Engineering Regulation and Monitoring (ERM), an organ of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), monitoring the conducts of the nation's engineers while handling various engineering projects to extract from them best practices.
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